CUMMING, Ga. — The Lakewood 400 Antiques Market is finally reopening on June 19, just in time for their yearly anniversary celebration.
“This month we're celebrating our 17th year here in our Cumming location,” co-owner Greg Spivia said. “We operated for 18 years down at the Atlanta location, so we've been doing this for 35 years and we've never missed a show up to this.”
The market, which is usually open the third weekend of every month, was forced to close two weeks before the March show when COVID-19 started spreading across Georgia. The Lakewood 400 team hoped they would only be closed for one month, Spivia said, but the market ended up being closed for three months, directly affecting the livelihood of many people.
“We have almost 200 dealers that exhibit here, and a lot of these dealers, that's their primary income. So it affected a couple hundred people,” he said. “We took a pretty good hit. The show was closed, but we still had power bills and phone bills, so the bills kept coming. But we're okay, and when we get the doors open back up, we're going to be fine.”
Of the 182 dealers currently occupying space at Lakewood 400, Spivia said all but 14 will be part of the June show. He also said the outdoor portion of the show is going to be considerably bigger than usual, good news for anyone with qualms about being inside around others. But, Spivia said, countless measures are being inside the building to keep everyone safe.
“We've got social distancing signs all over the building just to remind people to stay six feet apart, and we've set up the building with one-way aisles all the way through the building,” he said. “Also, we have sanitation stations with hand sanitizer set up all over the building, and we're going to limit the number of patrons in the building to 50 percent of the fire occupancy. We're also giving all the dealers free face masks to wear, and we have crews who will be wiping down the door handles and common areas to keep them clean. So we're following all the protocols to make sure that everyone has a safe and comfortable shopping environment.”
The Lakewood 400 Antiques Market will be open June 19 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., June 20 from 9 a.m. to 6 pm., and June 21 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
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